ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - Troy Brown’s been in the NFL for 10 years, so when he said yesterday, “It looked like the old days,” that could have been interpreted as the early or mid 1990s. But he was talking about last year, when the Patriots got in gear in Game 11 and never looked back.

“We had a sense of urgency,” the Patriots receiver said after New England’s 38-7 thrashing of the Buffalo Bills. “We told ourselves we needed to get off to a better start. We needed to get Antowain [Smith] the football, and we needed to get back to the things that made us Super Bowl champions.”